Mount
Vernon High School. The first post is about the language and culture side of
the unit. The second will describe the
app-smashing technology integration that supported the learning.

In
looking to extend the traditional “Family”
unit into a more thoughtful project-based-unit that incorporated technology at
an intermediate level, I discovered a French Web documentary called, “Photo de classe.” Julie Noël, a third grade
teacher in Paris, worked with her class for a full year exploring the students’
families and their ethnic heritages. The students created Web pages with video
interviews of their families, audio recordings with personal descriptions,
family photos, and personal drawings.

What
impressed me about the project is that 10-11 year old students discussed
migration, family origins, racism, and

cultural/national
identity. These themes fit in perfectly with the AP themes of identity and
culture: Who am I? What are my origins? Do I consider myself “American” or the
heritage of my immigrant parents? AP themes can be used at any level if the
tasks are appropriate for the learners.

Julie
Noël’s class and my classes mirrored each other in terms of ethnic and
financial backgrounds, so I decided to use this as our platform. Nearly
80% of my students have parents or grandparents who came to the United States
from a different country or whose families moved to Mount Vernon from a
different state. Discussing family history in French class has been a subject I
haven’t brought up too often. In our family units, students created imaginary
families so that we avoided personal (residency) and stressful (divorce, etc)
topics.

However,
this year I decided that our students should know more about their classmates
and their stories. Too often, our cafeteria is divided between the ethnic and
cultural backgrounds. My goal was to unite the students under the idea that we
all came to Mount Vernon from somewhere else – whether it was two years or 100
years ago.

The
three themes were tied together through the Web documentary, “Photo
de classe.” Each step included

authentic listening,
reading, and speaking activities to build and reinforce the language and
cultural objectives.

Over
the course of three months, French 2 students:

1.
Explored each French student's “Photo de classe” page. We discussed
the people in the pictures to reinforce family vocabulary and ethnic
backgrounds. This made for an interesting discussion as students thought they
could guess someone’s ethnicity based on skin color. Using French as much as
possible and employing a great deal of Comprehensible Input allowed the
students to express their ideas at novice-mid levels. Our goal was to progress
towards mid-high by the end of the unit.

2.
Listened to the French children’s audio clips as they
described themselves, their favorite activities, their family’s background, and
their cultural/national identity. Students filled out Google forms that
assessed their listening comprehension. Our students used the French students'
audio clips and this handout to help them begin
composing their 2 minute oral descriptions

3. Read
articles from “Astrapi,” a magazine for 7-11 year olds,
about four of the children from the documentary. “Copains de classe. Copains du monde” (No
808. 15 January 2015). These short reading selections discussed how and why the
children’s families migrated to France. Students demonstrated their reading
comprehension through an IPA-style assessment. Listened to Faudel’s song,
“Mon pays” that discusses knowing where
you came from and how you fit in with a culture.